


The Daily Life of the Newly Undead

by Swords_and_Parasols



Category: Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-22
Updated: 2010-12-22
Packaged: 2017-10-13 23:25:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/142854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Swords_and_Parasols/pseuds/Swords_and_Parasols
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everyone has secrets. Some last forever.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Daily Life of the Newly Undead

**Author's Note:**

  * For [redbrunja](https://archiveofourown.org/users/redbrunja/gifts).



> Set between the sixth and seventh episodes of season two.

The hardest part of being a vampire is not doing everything I can do.

No, scratch that. The hardest part is not letting my mother, the vampire hunter, know that I’m a vampire. At least until I have to leave and never let her see me again. And I have to keep her in the dark, or my evil ex-boyfriend might kill her.

So, that’s the worst part. But then there’s the part where I have to pretend to be normal. It takes me fifteen minutes to drive to school thanks to traffic. I could run there in six minutes. My house to Elena’s takes four minutes, and it takes three minutes to run to Bonnie’s. Matt’s house takes seven-and a half minutes, but it’s only two minutes from the Grille to there. I can speed most of the way to Stefan and Damon’s place anyway, so that’s fifteen minutes either way.

But I have to pretend I’m not faster than the morning traffic, so I sit in my car for fifteen minutes and try to block the noise from all the cars around me. Stefan says things like that will get easier as I get used to being a vampire, and I can’t wait.

At school, I almost always see Bonnie and Elena before classes. Bonnie and I made up, but she still braces herself a bit when she sees me. She does this with Stefan, too. When I see Elena, I can’t relax until I see her jewelry. Because I don’t think she can wear Elena’s vervain necklace, but I know she can’t be without her amulet. It’s hard to relax around someone before you’re sure it isn’t the woman who murdered you.

Classes are hard now because I could read most of a textbook during class. Instead I have to wait while everything moves at a snail’s pace. I finished my Chem test in six minutes last week, then had to pretend I was still writing for another forty minutes. I have to slow down, though, because someone will notice that pens don’t move that fast.

When the school year started, Bonnie, Elena and I had almost all our classes together, but while I was gone, Bonnie transferred out of most of the classes we shared, and then Stefan wanted me to have more classes with him. Now, the only class we all have together is History, and that’s because Alaric refused Bonnie’s transfer request, so she started skipping classes.

I do have lunch with Bonnie and Elena again, though. For a while, we all ate separately, but we‘re sitting together again now. Stefan says that he should jump into wells filled with vervain more often. A good sense of humor is definitely not something that immortality helps you with.

We used to sit in the middle of the courtyard, but now we sit in the shade. All the books and movies have vampires eternally pining for the sun, and maybe that’s true for the real vampires who can’t be in the sun, but I’m not big on wanting things that kill me, especially when all it would take to kill me during the day is stealing my ring. So we sit in the shade, and everyone notices, but no one says anything, and I want to eat three meals because when I’m eating, I’m not thinking about how people smell, especially all the half-clogged cuts and the scrapes and the paper cuts. But I eat one meal and not three, and Bonnie and Elena pretend not to notice when I steal from their plates.

I miss cheerleading practice now because Alaric says I’m failing history. My lowest score this year was a 92, so three afternoons a week, I sit in an empty classroom with him for an hour and he tells me everything he learned from his wife about vampires, and what he knows about hunting and killing vampires. Football season is over, so it’s not as bad as it could be. I just have to be sure I won’t accidentally throw someone ten feet in the air before I can go back.

Homework is as bad as sitting through class, except that I don’t have to cover myself when I’m at home. Reading isn’t as fun as it used to be, either, because it doesn’t take very long.

So I always have too much time on my hands. I could go hunting, but unlike Stefan, I don’t like to eat Bambi and Thumper on a regular basis. So I learn how fast I can run. How far I can throw things. How many sounds I can filter out. I learn how to recognize how people walk, and I memorize their tells. And I learned I can drink two cases of beer before I really start to notice the alcohol. But half the time, I end up following my friends. I won’t admit to stalking anyone but Matt.

But there are two things I never miss.

Mom calls between ten and ten-fifteen if she won’t be coming home at night. If she isn’t home by then, I never answer anyone else’s calls. Half the time, I end up staying in Stefan’s guest room, since I usually raid Damon’s supply of stolen blood bags anyway. Stefan says Damon started stealing more once I started coming over, but Damon and I avoid each other unless we’re playing nice for Stefan or Elena. But I’m always home between five and six in the morning, because Mom will come to check on me then if she can, though she always thinks I’m asleep.

Matt gets off work at eleven-thirty. It takes him ten minutes to walk home, so he rarely drives. He thinks Mystic Falls is safe. He doesn’t know that a man he sees almost every day turned his sister into a vampire. He doesn’t know that there’s an evil woman who looks just like Elena, the person he trusts the most, who’s already threatened to kill him once. He doesn’t know about all the vampires who tried to kill the whole town only a few weeks ago, or that his best friend might turn into a werewolf. And he doesn’t know that the girl who loves him can’t hug him without thinking that he smells like a good meal.

But I do know that, and a lot more.

I sit in a corner table and pretend I’m not stalking him because I love him, and I follow him home every night to make sure he’s safe, and that’s because I love him, too. I pretend I hate Mom and that I think she hates me because now I keep both out secrets, and that keeps her safe. I protect Elena, but I can never relax until I know she isn’t Katherine, and I watch Tyler to be safe.

Bonnie. Elena. Mom. Stefan. They all kept secrets to protect me, and now I keep secrets-both with and from them-to protect them.


End file.
